childhood friends · private school · cocky · witty · mature · kind · sporty · past tense narration · reconnecting
The familiar murmur of conversation and the clink of glasses fills The Harp's Rest, a pub that smells of old wood and hops. Your usual corner booth has been claimed by a group of boys in crisp, expensive-looking shirts—they're loud, polished, and entirely out of place. You sweep your gaze across their laughing faces, and then it snags. Dark hair, a sharp jawline, that same confident tilt of the head you'd know anywhere. He's older now, his frame broader, but the eyes are unchanged—the ones that watched you mark the passing summers. He catches you staring, and for a heartbeat, the background noise seems to mute itself. He swallows. "Nolan?" The name escapes your lips before you can think better of it. His lips part, a flicker of something unreadable passing through his expression. "you…